Spotty Cell Coverage Is Nothing New

Broadcast industry leaders who defend TV spectrum and push for adoption of radio in mobile devices often make the case that the broadcast infrastructure is reliable, staying on the air in times of crisis, while other platforms often do not.

A paragraph in a story in the Kansas City Star this week reminds us again that cell coverage has a nasty habit of falling apart at the worst times. “Cellphone coverage in the Joplin area was spotty, so Sprint, AT&T and Verizon Wireless sent mobile cell towers to restore service. They also were using generators to restore power to cell towers and get them running again,” it states. Read it here.

Similarly, the text at the bottom of the accompanying image here tells the tale.

Bobby Adams of GSS, whose business is in broadcast-based alerting, pointed me to this as yet another example of radio’s relative stability in in times of emergency.